Mumbai, Jan 15 (IANS): Railway Board Principal Executive Director/Civil Engineering (Planning) Alok Kansal, has taken over as the new General Manager of Western Railway, an official said here on Wednesday.

A senior officer of the 1983 batch of Indian Railway Service of Engineers, Kansal is gold medallist in Civil Engineering degree from University of Roorkee, and later bagged another gold medal for his Masters in Structural Engineering from the same varsity.

Joining the Indian Railways, he brings to WR a rich experience spanning 35 years serving in several important capacities in his long career.

He was the first Engineering Assistant Officer associated with the launch of the first Shatabdi Express, the high speed trains and has experience of over 18 years in operation and maintenance of high speed and heavy density traffic routes.

Kansal also headed the Engineering Branch of Delhi Division, the biggest division in Indian Railways, and worked as Chief Track Engineer over Bilaspur and Northern Zones.

As a construction engineer, he is credited with executing several major gauge conversion and doubling projects on the Golden Quadrilateral and ECR, besides the longest - two kms - PSC box girder with a 54.5 metre span on the Thane Creek Bridge near Mumbai.

Apart from holding senior positions across the Indian Railways network, Kansal found time to author two books - "A-Z for Quality Control and Inspection of Concrete Sleepers", and "Learning the First Step by a Railway Engineer" which are considered practical guides for all field Assistant Divisional Engineers.